Italy heads for general election

The prospect of a general election in Italy in April grew stronger yesterday after an attempt failed to form an interim government in order to first change the voting rules.

Senate speaker Franco Marini had been asked last Wednesday, after Romano Prodi's centre-left government lost a confidence vote last month, to find cross-party support for an interim government to legislate a change in elections so they produce a more decisive outcome.

Being ahead in opinion polls, Silvio Berlusconi and his opposition centre-right allies blocked talks, thus paving the way for the dissolution of parliament this week and a poll on the existing law on April 6 or 13. Berlusconi passed the law during his second term in 2005; it is credited with giving undue weight in parliament to small parties.

Forming an interim administration now to change that system, as Marini had been requested by President Giorgio Napolitano, was "a useless waste of time," Berlusconi said yesterday.

Walter Veltroni, Prodi's successor as centre-left leader, said: "This risks being a missed opportunity for Italian politics, rushing towards elections with a flawed law." The employers' organisation Confindustria called for a new system to end "years of rivalry and ungovernability".